Article 102 of the new Constitution — which allows the removal of the president from office on the grounds of medical or other such inability to exercise his functions — is making headlines for the third week running.

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia has now stepped into the debate, giving his reply to the increasing calls for the application of Article 102. Speaking on the sidelines of an RND political meeting on 9 September, he first tried to brush the question aside, by saying that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika fulfills his duties, before trying to turn the questioning to his amendment of the MCA. However, when journalists brought him back to the issue of Article 102, he replied by assuring citizens that ‘our president carries out his duties and takes care of the interests of the country’. With leading newspapers holding open debates on calls for the application of Article 102, little heed was paid to Ouyahia’s attempt to brush it aside.

Another forum on Article 102 — held by intellectuals and academic experts on the subject — has probably put the matter to rest. Nevertheless, to no-one’s satisfaction other than those that want to see Bouteflika remain in office until he is carried out in a coffin.

The forum posed two questions:

• Firstly: what does the constitution actually say?
• Secondly: is it really possible to implement Article 102 and then move to an early presidential election?

The answer to the first is: ‘When the President of the Republic, on account of serious and lasting illness, finds himself totally unable to perform his duties, the Constitutional Council shall … verify the reality of this impediment by any means,’ and notify Parliament. Parliament, with both houses sitting jointly, then declares the state of the President’s impediment with a two-thirds majority. The Head of the Senate, then takes over as acting Head of State for a maximum of 45 days, while calling for a presidential election.’

It is therefore up to the Constitutional Council to decide whether the President is sufficiently incapacitated to be removed from office by Article 102. The Council’s decision must be unanimous. However — as three members of the Constitutional Council are directly appointed by the president, it requires only one of them to refuse to acknowledge the state of impediment and thereby block the process (NB: Ouyahia’s very own comment above). It is therefore difficult to see any way in which the President could be removed from office other than by death.

Bouteflika has not functioned as a normal president for five years and with such a corrupted Constitution this situation looks like it will only persist indefinitely.

This article was taken from a longer paper in our weekly Algeria Politics and Security paper. If you would like to receive a copy of the paper then please contact us.